[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15455-15461]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  SPEAKER BOEHNER, LET YOUR PEOPLE GO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Massie). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Garamendi) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, October 8. October 8. We are now 8 days 
into the shutdown of the government of the United States of America, 
presumed to be the strongest Nation on this Earth, presumed to be the 
greatest economic power, presumed to be the world's oldest democracy--
perhaps oldest, but not functioning.
  Why? Why are we in this situation? Eight days without a functioning 
government. What in the world is the Republican Party doing to this 
Nation? And why? Why? It's hard to say why because every day the 
goalpost changes. Every day a different demand. And today yet a new 
demand.
  But what's the result of all of this? What does all of this mean? It 
means that this Nation is humiliated by this shutdown.
  Speaker Boehner, let your people go. Speaker Boehner, let your people 
go and vote. Why not? We think there's a majority. Let's see here. 
There's 198 Democrats that will vote for the reopening of this 
government tonight. Call us back into session, Mr. Boehner, 198 
Democrats. And by the public record, there are 23 or more Republicans 
that have said they would vote for a clean CR. Mr. Speaker, let your 
people go and vote.
  What does it mean that the government shut down? What does it mean to 
Americans? I'll tell you what it means in my district. It means that 
the day care centers, the early childhood education programs, the levee 
improvements, indeed, even today we've learned that the burials of 
those brave men and women--men, in this case--that have recently been 
killed in the war in Afghanistan, their families will not receive 
$100,000 that's been set aside for them.
  Oh, I know we have a vote here. This is the eighth day of the 
shutdown, and we have, in this House, passed eight bills to appropriate 
pieces of this government.
  These are the 12 appropriation bills. These are the 12 appropriation 
bills that fund every function of government, whether it's the 
military, whether it's the farm programs, the day care programs, the 
health care programs, the Centers for Disease Control. Here they are, 
more than 1,000 specific items. And in 8 days, our Republican 
colleagues have put before us eight bills to fund eight of the more 
than 1,000. At this rate, it will be 2020 before this government fully 
is functional. How foolish. How stupid. How humiliating for this 
Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, let your people vote. Let us vote. Let us 
vote on reopening this government. The votes are there. A simple 
blackboard will tell

[[Page 15456]]

you the votes are there. Tonight, call us back to session, and tomorrow 
morning the people of America, the people across this world will see 
the strongest Nation in the world, the government of that Nation 
functioning once again.
  How do I go back to my district and tell the people at the Dixon 
National Cemetery that those burials aren't going to take place? How do 
I go back to my district and tell them--yeah, maybe we ought to see 
this.
  In California, northern California, it's hunting season, opened on 
Saturday, but the refuges across this great Nation are closed to 
hunters, the duck hunters, the men and women that want to recreate in 
those areas. And if you're not a hunter, maybe you're a fisherman, but 
don't go to a refuge. Don't go to the Bureau of Land Management fishing 
areas. Don't try to put your boat in the water at the national parks. 
You can't do it because this government is shut down.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, let your people vote. Let us all vote. Let 
us reopen this government.
  We have several of my colleagues with me tonight. We're going to 
cover this issue. How much I would prefer to be here with my colleagues 
from New York and other States to talk about putting Americans back to 
work. And I guess we are, in a way, putting the Federal employees back 
to work.
  Mr. Paul Tonko from the great State of New York, thanks for joining 
us once again.
  Mr. TONKO. My pleasure. I appreciate the gentleman from California 
bringing us together tonight in thoughtful discussion about what is 
chaos here in the Nation's Capitol. So, Representative Garamendi, thank 
you for bringing us together with Representatives from New Jersey and 
from Connecticut and from Pennsylvania, and others who will probably 
join us that will speak to the unnecessary pain that has trickled into 
the lives of far too many working families across this country and 
impacting so many small businesses from coast to coast with the ill 
effects of a government shutdown--a Republican government shutdown 
simply because, as you just heard the gentleman from California 
indicate, we need to vote on a CR, a continuing resolution, a bill that 
allows for the budget to continue into a date certain as mentioned in 
that bill, most likely 2 months--8 weeks--as an extender into perhaps 
mid-December.
  Why do we need to do that? So that we can bring stability into the 
process, allow government to be funded, allow for the doors to be 
opened, allow for the lights to go on and reopen government. That's the 
first step in the sequence.
  Secondly, another cornerstone bit of legislation coming quickly upon 
us, giving the green light to America to pay her bills. America's 
working families understand what that's about. They know that they play 
by the rules. They roll up their sleeves. They work hard. They expect 
to taste success. They pay their bills on time, and they expect their 
beloved country to do the same thing. Our second step in the process.
  Then thirdly, buying this 8 weeks of time allows us to immediately 
name those individuals who will be the representatives for the majority 
and minority parties in each of the Houses of Congress to sit down and 
nail down a budget in those ensuing 8 weeks to make certain that 
stability again is the outcome. That's what we're asking for.
  Mr. Speaker, you are the Speaker not only to the Tea Party, not only 
to the Republican Conference, but to the entire House, the United 
States House of Representatives. Let all of us vote on what is a clean 
CR, which has been approved by the United States Senate--and, by the 
way, in negotiations to date, accepts your number, the lowest number in 
the process. We're not happy with that number, but we're going to cave 
to your request to allow for government to be refunded, to be reopened, 
and for us to move forward. That's what it's about.
  We're asking for dignity to be expressed for America's working 
families. We're allowing for certainty to be the outcome for our small 
business community so that we can grow our economy, allow for the 
climate that produces both public and private sector job growth that 
allows us to move forward with a sense of hope. That's what the request 
is here.
  Why don't you let us vote on a clean CR? Are you fearful that it 
might pass? Are you fearful that you don't get your way? Because you 
know, in the 45 votes that have been taken on a debt ceiling limit vote 
since the days of President Ronald Reagan, those 45 measures have been 
approved 38 times without any bells and whistles--and certainly 
unprecedented to have attached to the vote some sort of clutter that 
deals with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
  Never have we reached to that sort of negotiated outcome where we are 
repealing the law of the land--in this case, the law of the land that 
is 3 years old, was approved by a majority in the House of 
Representatives, was approved by a supermajority in the United States 
Senate, was tested, because of your concern, before the highest Court 
of the land, and the Supreme Court gave it thumbs-up in meeting the 
constitutionality test. What more do we need to do to convince you?
  Let me just say this, Representative Garamendi, quickly so we can get 
to our colleagues. I want to share with you some of the results in 
these few 8 days already--but painful 8 days for far too many.
  By the end of this month, food pantries like the one in my district 
in Cohoes, New York, may not have the money to stay open. That is the 
situation with many of our food pantries. This is a facility that helps 
feed 215 hungry families in the capital region of New York State.
  Projections are that one of the providers of electronics for our 
fighter jets, our submarines, and our helicopters in Saratoga Springs, 
New York, in the 20th Congressional District that I represent, have 
grinded to a halt as inspectors can't complete contracts and new orders 
cannot come in.
  We also have impacting us a forensic meteorology business in 
Niskayuna, New York--again, in the 20th Congressional District of New 
York--that works each and every day with the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, that helps bring benefits to all of us from 
the devastation of Mother Nature. These are jobs that are meaningful--
meaningful to the quality of life of people across this country, that 
are meaningful to working families who are now without jobs, people who 
are not getting paid and showing up to work. These are devastating 
consequences to the economy.
  We implore the leadership of this House, we implore the Speaker to 
call for a vote on a clean continuing resolution that embraces your 
number, the lowest number in negotiations that we will settle upon. We 
will offer our votes for that kind of measure, only give us that chance 
so that America can have her government funded, we can move forward to 
advance the debt ceiling limit bill vote that will allow for America to 
pay her bills, and then finally move to that conference table, where 
representation from both parties in each of the Houses will nail down a 
budget in the ensuing 8 weeks.

                              {time}  2015

  That will bring stability to the economy and will bring economic and 
social justice to the people of this great country. Let's move forward 
with that sense of fairness.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Tonko, the gentleman from New York.
  I would like now to bring to the microphone our friend from the great 
State of Connecticut, John Larson.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. I thank the gentleman from California for 
organizing this hour, and I appreciate the eloquence of our colleague 
from New York, both of whom have addressed the most important issue of 
the day, in fact, the last 8 days, as Mr. Garamendi has articulated.
  Mr. Speaker, we find ourselves dealing with the issue ``de jure.'' 
Each day the goalposts move, each day the American public sits in utter 
amazement and disgust with its elective representatives. It is 
astounding to them to see the greatest Nation in the world brought to 
its knees.

[[Page 15457]]

  Our forefathers were very prescient--and certainly George Washington, 
who Daniel Webster, the Senator from Massachusetts in this Chamber--
well, actually, it would have been down the hall--got up on the 100th 
anniversary of George Washington's birth and talked about the 
President's admonitions. Amongst his keenest admonitions was about that 
of ``excessive'' party spirit.
  Now, in Washington's day, there weren't political parties, as we know 
them. It wasn't Democrat or Republic; it was Federalist or anti-
Federalist. He knew very well and was concerned deeply about what 
factions could do. He warned about the outside influence of party. But 
what he was most concerned about is what happens within a government if 
people in that very government are at war with their own existence, are 
working against the interest of the government and therefore the 
people.
  So we find ourselves this evening as Members of the minority coming 
to this floor and asking for one simple thing from the majority, and 
that is a vote. Now, we understand that we have asked for votes on this 
floor--we have asked for votes to put the country back to work. As the 
gentleman from California has articulated on many occasions to come 
here and talk about making things in America and allowing a vote to put 
us back to work, we have been denied that opportunity. We have been 
denied the opportunity here to vote on nutrition and funding and making 
sure that important bills like the agriculture bill, that the very poor 
amongst us and the very needy are fed. We have been denied an 
opportunity to vote on immigration, as you heard Charlie Rangel talk 
about so nobly earlier this evening. We have also, most importantly, 
been denied a vote here that is fundamental to our democracy.
  The most fundamental thing and the most patriotic thing that we do in 
a society is vote. Yet here, because of the tyranny of the majority, 
200-plus Democrats are not allowed a vote. More importantly, the 
American people are not allowed a vote on the continuing of its 
government. As the gentleman from New York pointed out, not only is it 
the continuation and shutdown of government, but on the near horizon 
defaulting on the full faith and credit of the American people. This is 
unconscionable.
  But Washington was prescient when a few, dangerously are at war with 
their own government, who seek to bring that government down, who seek 
to bring the government down through a shutdown; and then by not paying 
the bills that this body and the other body have racked up, the 
greatest Nation on the face of the Earth. We need to be able to express 
the will of the people. All we ask of the majority party is for a vote, 
a simple vote, as the gentleman from New York said, on a continuing 
resolution unencumbered that does nothing more, and at the levels that 
they have requested, but put the Nation back to work and then respond 
quickly to the need to pay our debts without being held hostage.
  You are not holding Barack Obama hostage, Mr. Speaker. You are not 
holding the Democrats in Congress hostage, Mr. Speaker. You are holding 
the people of the United States hostage. For the sake of fairness and 
being responsible, bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Allow the 
minority the opportunity to vote.
  If you don't have the votes, let it be so, and let the world know, 
and let every American citizen know, where their Members stand on this 
issue. Stand with your country. Do not let it be shut down. Do not let 
it default. At least give us a vote.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much, Mr. Larson.
  Mr. Speaker, a vote--that is what democracy is all about. We are 
asking for a simple thing: the opportunity to vote on extending the 
operations of the American government.
  Now I would like to turn to the gentleman from the great State of 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Doyle).
  Mr. DOYLE. I thank my colleague from California and my colleagues 
from New York and Connecticut.
  Mr. Speaker, many of us that you will see on the floor tonight, we 
are not regulars, we are not people that come to the floor often to 
speak. But I think many of us feel it is important for the American 
people to understand the nature of this task, this battle, that we face 
on their behalf.
  We hear a lot from Republicans about the President not wanting to 
negotiate, not wanting to talk. The Democrats don't want to negotiate. 
They have been pretty good at saying that over and over and over again, 
Mr. Speaker. But what they are not telling the American people is the 
nature of the negotiation that they want to have. I think it is 
important that that be revealed.
  What makes me so angry--and the reason I am here tonight--is what we 
face in the country right now is completely a manufactured crisis. 
There is no structural economic reason that our country should be 
facing default come the 17th of this month. There is no reason that 
800,000 Federal employees aren't working. There is no reason for this 
to happen.
  This is being manufactured by a party because they are trying to get 
something that they have not been able to get at the ballot box. We 
have divided government. The Republicans control the House of 
Representatives, the Senate is controlled by the Democratic party, we 
have a Democratic President.
  The Republicans had two goals going into this manufactured crisis. 
One was to destroy the health care bill. Now, this is a bill that 
passed the House of Representatives, it passed the Senate, it was 
signed by the President, it was upheld by the Supreme Court. We had a 
Presidential election and their candidate said on day one of his new 
administration the first thing he would do if elected was to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act. That gentleman lost by 5 million votes.
  What they can't accomplish at the ballot box they now were looking 
for a way to accomplish here. But it couldn't be done through the 
regular process, Mr. Speaker. It couldn't be done through the regular 
order.
  So now comes this ingenious idea, hatched by the Tea Party wing of 
the Republican Party, to say: Here is what we will do. We will wait 
until the end of the fiscal year to come, and we will say we are going 
to shut the government down unless you repeal ObamaCare.
  I was on this floor a couple of days ago and read something on the 
floor that I saw on the Internet by a young man by the name of Judd 
Legum. I hope I have said his last name correctly. He put an analogy 
about what we were actually facing. He said it is sort of like if 
someone comes up to you and says, I want to burn down your house, and 
you look at the guy and you say, no. And he says, well, I just want to 
burn down the second floor, and you tell him, no. And he goes, well, 
what about your garage, can I burn your garage down? And you say, no. 
And the guy says, well, let's just sit down and talk about what part of 
your house I can burn down, and you look at the guy and you say, no. 
And he goes, you see, you're not compromising.
  This is what we are facing in this so-called ``rigged'' negotiation. 
What Republicans are saying is, defund ObamaCare, we will open up the 
government. We said, no. Then they said, we will delay ObamaCare for a 
year and we will open up the government, and we said, no. Then they 
said, well, just get rid of that individual mandate--which effectively 
kills the health care bill--and we said, no. Then they said, well, will 
you just sit down and negotiate with us and tell us what part of the 
Affordable Care Act we can get rid of, and we said, there are 20 
million Americans that are counting on this bill, it is the law of the 
land, the answer is no.
  And they look at us and say, the Democrats don't want to negotiate; 
the President doesn't want to negotiate.
  Well, I got news for my friends over there: we are not going to 
negotiate the rights of 20 million uninsured Americans because they 
can't get this done at the ballot box.
  So now, Mr. Speaker, what is the new strategy? They have shifted off 
of the

[[Page 15458]]

health care bill now because the American public, by margins of over 70 
percent, have said we don't want you to shut the government down to try 
to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.
  So now where have they moved? To the Ryan budget. What is the Ryan 
budget? It is a budget that keeps us in sequester, it is a budget that 
does not invest in our infrastructure, it is a budget that does not 
invest in the education of our children, it is a budget that makes it 
impossible for this economy to grow, and it is a budget that threatens 
the social safety net that many of our senior citizens depend on.
  They couldn't get it passed in the regular order. They couldn't get 
it passed in their own House of Representatives for a long time. They 
were afraid to put the bill on the floor. They certainly couldn't get 
it passed in the Senate, and they knew the President wouldn't sign it.
  So what is the strategy now? This new rigged negotiation that we are 
being asked to have with our friends is: Give us pieces of the Ryan 
budget, and in return we will open up the government and we will raise 
the debt ceiling, but only if you give us what we want in the Ryan 
budget.
  Mr. Speaker, we want to have a budget negotiation with our friends on 
the Republican side. The House has passed a budget, the Senate has 
passed a budget. The numbers--there is a great disparity in the 
numbers. Democrats believe in investing in America. We want to rebuild 
our roads and bridges and sewer systems. We want to invest in the 
education of our children. We want to protect our seniors and our 
veterans. It costs money to do that, Mr. Speaker, so there is a 
difference.
  But we are ready and we are willing to appoint conferees tomorrow to 
sit down and have a negotiation. I want the American public to 
understand that we have asked 18 times to appoint conferees to 
negotiate the differences in the Senate budget and the House budget, 
and all 18 times the Republicans in the House have said no.

                              {time}  2030

  So, Mr. Speaker, I would just say if there's someone in this House 
that's not willing to negotiate, it's our friends on the Republican 
side of the aisle. The American people deserve a budget negotiation 
where we sit down and settle our differences. We're not going to get 
everything we want, Mr. Speaker; it's divided government. The 
Republicans are going to get something in this budget negotiation, the 
Democrats are going to get something in the budget negotiation. But the 
country moves forward, we pay our bills, and we live to pay another 
day.
  In closing, let me say to the American people, we will not be part of 
a rigged negotiation where Democratic priorities and principles aren't 
allowed to be discussed, only that which the Republicans couldn't get 
in the ballot box that they're trying to get now by holding a gun to 
our head. That's not how you do business in the United States of 
America. That kind of behavior has to be stopped.
  Mr. Speaker, for the good of the American people, I hope Republicans 
will come to their senses, pass a clean CR, and let's sit down and 
negotiate a budget agreement for the American people and move this 
country forward.
  I thank you for yielding me this time.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Doyle, thank you so very much. The Republican 
shutdown has to end. It has to end, and how correct you were about the 
negotiations just this evening. They put a proposal on the floor to 
create some sort of a negotiating committee that did not have all of 
the issues before them, as you so correctly pointed out, only their set 
of issues were to be allowed to be discussed by that negotiating 
committee, none of the issues that we care about on the Democratic 
side. That's hardly a negotiating opportunity.
  I now yield to the gentleman from the great State of New Jersey (Mr. 
Pascrell).
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Garamendi for bringing us all 
together tonight. I couldn't stand with better Americans than I am 
standing with tonight. I mean that.
  Mr. Speaker, the latest supercommittee plan that folks on the other 
side of the aisle gave us today is really absurd. In fact, as a member 
of the Budget Committee, this new-found Republican insistence on 
negotiations, referred to by Mr. Doyle from Pennsylvania, is mind 
boggling, since my colleagues have spent the last 6 months avoiding 
negotiations. And I didn't come here tonight to water the wine, so 
we're going to say it like it is.
  My fellow Americans, this House of Representatives passed its budget 
over 200 days ago on March 21. Then the Senate passed its budget 2 days 
later. Now, think about what I just said. What happened to it? Well, 
the usual protocol is the two sides name conferees, they come together 
in conference, and they work out a budget. That didn't happen. That's 6 
months ago. We've been asking to go to conference so we can resolve our 
differences, and there are always differences within parties, between 
parties, you name it. We want to fund the government. We want to get 
rid of sequestration, like Chairman Rogers said on July 31, 2013:

       I believe the House has made its choice. Sequestration--and 
     its unrealistic, ill-conceived discretionary cuts--must be 
     brought to an end.

  Mr. Rogers is the chairman, a Republican, he said it. He said that; I 
didn't say that. He said it better than I could ever imagine saying it.
  So what happened? Democrats attempted to go to conference 20 times. 
The Republicans objected every single time. Fact check this: over here 
in the House, we have almost 200 Members who signed the discharge 
petition calling for a conference on the budget. We tried four times to 
bring the resolution to the floor. Leader Pelosi even went so far as to 
name conferees. Some of them are in this room. Some of us are 
conferees. She did that on June 27. What's the date today--October 8? 
June 27. So why, after this stalling, have the Republicans finally 
found religion and now they want to negotiate?
  I'll tell you why: we've just discovered we have a phantom government 
in the United States. Every Congressman, every House Member, every 
Senate Member should be concerned that they're elected by the people of 
this country, be they Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, 
it doesn't matter, they've been elected. They stood for election. We 
respect that, regardless of denomination, because we know that neither 
party is ever perfect. Come on, we all share in the pluses, we share in 
the minuses. There's never one party that has all of the answers. We 
know that. But why?
  Well, just this past Saturday, October 5, we had a front page story 
in The New York Times. It was mind boggling--mind boggling--that 
article. Here's the title of that article, ``The Federal budget crisis 
months in planning.'' Well, I don't remember planning this. I don't 
know if any Republicans were out planning this. Who in God's name are 
they talking about? And this is what it says in the article in the 
second paragraph, which refers to a manifesto--a manifesto--put 
together by non-elected people in this country. Hear me, America, hear 
me.
  They sat down one morning in a location the members insist on keeping 
secret. Wow. And came--little noticed--a blueprint. This is what they 
said, Mr. Speaker. A blueprint to defunding ObamaCare signed by--oh, 
you're going to love this, Ed Meese. Boy there's a name that pops up. I 
can't believe it. Ed Meese. It's not funny, it's serious; a phantom 
government. Leaders of more than three-dozen conservative groups, and I 
will put in the Record tonight who those groups are, and I got part of 
their manifesto. Listen to this. This is what they put together. And 
I'm sure there are only a few Congressmen on the other side who even 
knew about this. It says this:

       Conservatives should not approve a CR unless it defunds 
     ObamaCare. This includes ObamaCare's unworkable exchanges, 
     unsustainable Medicaid expansion, and attack on life and 
     religious liberty.

  They said that February 14, 2013. This did not just happen, Mr. 
Speaker. It didn't just happen. It wasn't an accident; it was planned. 
That is the lowest thing you could ever read about a government that 
wasn't even elected. Who

[[Page 15459]]

the heck are these people to decide what we're going to do?
  Now we know why Mr. Ryan did not want to go to conference. Now we 
know why Mr. Boehner did not want to go to conference, because that was 
not the plan. Read it. Judge for yourself. Judge for yourself.
  It also said that these 30 groups, and the names of each group 
besides Mr. Meese's, are right here. You've got every right-wing group 
in the universe. They go into this manifesto on Medicaid expansion, 
permanent appropriations, implementation. They want to run the 
government. These people actually wanted to run the government.
  My friends, the Republicans don't want to negotiate. They want to use 
this shutdown and the threat of default to invalidate the results of--
oh, an election last November. These people weren't elected, we were 
elected. And I love debating people from the other side who are 
elected. That's their God-given right. That's what liberty is all 
right. Why don't they come in here, this shadow government, this 
phantom group, why don't they stand there and tell us who they talked 
to within the Republican Party. Tell us. America has a right to know.
  Don't you talk to me, Mr. Speaker, about let's have transparency in 
government when you have this vagabond group out here funded by--guess. 
I'll give you three guesses. No, I'll only give you one guess: the Koch 
brothers. They think they're running this government. The Supreme Court 
heard another case today--isn't that interesting. This is mild compared 
to what would happen if they were able to do and spend as much money as 
they want.
  I did not come here to water the wine. You better listen to it, and 
every member of the staff better listen because they tried every trick 
in the book, putting your own health care in jeopardy, saying that you 
get a subsidy from the government when it's just like any company that 
in some way contributes to your health care. Somebody gets hired by the 
Federal Government to be a secretary, making $20,000, $25,000 a year, 
the cost of their health care will go up between $5,200 and $12,000. 
How are you going to live on that being a staff member here on the 
floor or back in your districts. They will stop at nothing, nothing, to 
bring the government down at any cost. At any cost.
  The November election apparently did not occur in their minds. We are 
dealing with dangerous people. Either they are on hallucinogenic drugs 
or they just lost their minds. This is what we're dealing with. To 
bring us to this precipice only a few days away, something's wrong. 
This is not how we debate things in the United States of America. This 
is not in any manner, shape, or form. As President Obama said, 
Democrats are willing to negotiate, but not with a gun to our heads. 
Never. I'm from Paterson, New Jersey; you never put a gun to my head, 
I've got news for you.
  Let's end this irresponsible shutdown and default threat, and let's 
get back to work. That's what we were sent here for.
  I thank you, Mr. Garamendi for your patience.

       Signed:
       Edwin Meese III, Former Attorney General, President Ronald 
     Reagan; Chris Chocola, President, Club for Growth; Jenny Beth 
     Martin, Co-Founder, Tea Party Patriots; Penny Nance, 
     President, Concerned Women for America; The Honorable J. 
     Kenneth Blackwell, President, Constitutional Congress, Inc.; 
     William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government; 
     Duane Parde, President, National Taxpayers Union; Susan 
     Carleson, President, American Civil Rights Union; Andrea 
     Lafferty, President, Traditional Values Coalition; Alfred S. 
     Regnery, President, The Paul Revere Project; Lewis Uhler, 
     President, National Tax Limitation Committee; Brent Bozell, 
     President, ForAmerica; Matt Kibbe, President, FreedomWorks; 
     Marjorie Dannenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony List; 
     David Williams, President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
       The Honorable David McIntosh, Former U.S. Representative, 
     Indiana; David Bozell, Executive Director, ForAmerica; Colin 
     Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring; Stuart Epperson, 
     President, Council for National Policy; Heather Higgins, 
     President, Independent Women's Forum; Cindy Chafian, 
     President, The Mommy Lobby; Gary Bauer, President, American 
     Values; Mike Needham, CEO, Heritage Action for America; David 
     Bossie, President, Citizens United; Mathew D. Staver, 
     Chairman, Liberty Counsel Action; James Martin, Chairman, 60 
     Plus Association; Erick Erickson, Editor, RedState.com; T. 
     Kenneth Cribb, Former Domestic Advisor, President Ronald 
     Reagan; Becky Norton Dunlop, Former White House Advisor, 
     President Ronald Reagan; Grace-Marie Turner, President, The 
     Galen Institute.
       Myron Ebell, President, Freedom Action; Craig Shirley, 
     Reagan Campaign Biographer; Rev. Lou Sheldon, Chairman, 
     Traditional Values Coalition; Richard Rahn, President, Inst. 
     for Global Economic Growth; Lee Beaman, Businessman, 
     Nashville, TN; Bob Reccord, Executive Director, Council for 
     National Policy; Angelo M. Codevilla, Professor, Emeritus, 
     Boston University; Tom Donelson, Chairman, America's PAC; 
     Brian Baker, President, Ending Spending; Kay R. Daly, 
     President, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary; Don Devine, Senior 
     Scholar, The Fund for American Studies; Gary Aldrich, 
     President, Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty; Ralph 
     Benko, President, Center for Civic Virtue; Andresen Blom, 
     Senior Strategist, Center for Civic Virtue; Joe Gregory, CEO, 
     Gregory Management Co.; Rebecca Hagelin.

  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Pascrell, thank you very much. Whether you're from 
New Jersey or wherever, I'm not about to threaten you. But I would like 
to welcome to this microphone our friend from the State of 
Massachusetts, who is probably just as tough as the gentleman from New 
Jersey, and that's Mr. Capuano.
  Mr. CAPUANO. For the first time in my life, I have no intention of 
being as passionate as the gentleman from New Jersey, and I thank the 
gentleman from California for yielding.
  I was going to walk people through this because to me, good people 
can disagree. Reasonable people can disagree. Even people I disagree 
with vehemently, that's what politics, that's what government, that's 
what life is all about. But you're not entitled to forget history or to 
ignore facts. And for me, there have been lots of misrepresentations in 
the last week or two because there's a lot of passion, a lot of 
emotion. But I need to back up a little bit, educational value.
  When I'm told that the Democrats have to come to the table and 
compromise, my answer is: We have, repeatedly. And we will do it again, 
if necessary.
  And people say, Well, no, you haven't. The President is saying no, 
you won't negotiate.
  Well, no, we won't negotiate on this issue at this point in time 
because we have already gone far enough, and here's why. 2011, the last 
supercommittee, where did it come from? It came from the budget 
impasse. We couldn't come to an agreement. We couldn't make a deal. We 
had taken our corners. What did we do? We created a supercommittee and 
it was said if the supercommittee doesn't work, do something like 
Simpson-Bowles or whatever they would come up with, then we would 
institute a sequester. And a sequester, for all intents and purposes, 
is an across-the-board cut of roughly 8 percent per year every year for 
10 years in a row. That's what it is. At the end of that 10th year if 
you don't do anything, you would be spending approximately 48 cents of 
every dollar you were spending when you started.
  Now I understand that some people want a government that does that 
and the programs that would pay for. I don't agree with that, but 
that's a reasonable position to take. ``I don't want senior housing. I 
don't want childhood nutrition.'' I don't agree with it, but it's a 
reasonable position to take, and we should argue about that and we 
should debate about that, and the American people should have an 
opportunity to elect people that agree or disagree with them on those 
types of issues.

                              {time}  2045

  We couldn't come to an agreement, so the sequester took place; and 
the sequester set out numbers each year for 10 years. This is as much 
as you can spend unless you come up with some sort of agreement to get 
around it. We haven't been able to do it. We've had the first year of 
sequester and are about to enter the second year of sequester.

[[Page 15460]]

  Pursuant to the law that was passed in 2011, a law, by the way, I 
voted against--I don't like the concept of sequester--but the majority 
ruled and it passed. Pursuant to that law in this coming fiscal year, 
we would have been allowed to spend a little over a trillion dollars. 
Remember, that number is based on an 8 percent cut from the prior year. 
So this already represents a cut, and, by the way, it represents a 
massive compromise between Democrats and Republicans to pass that 
sequester. So it was a Democratic compromise with Republicans to cut 
the budget for 10 years in a row. That's where we start.
  This year, Republicans passed a budget of $967 billion, $100 billion 
below what the sequester allows. They're entitled to do that. Again, I 
can disagree, but I respect their viewpoint. If you really think the 
government can operate and provide the services the American people 
want on that number, fine. I will disagree, we will vote, pass it, and 
we'll move on. Of course, the Senate didn't agree with that number. The 
Senate passed another number. Here we are today.
  What's happened? The last week or so, you have heard pretty much 
every Democrat, pretty much every Democrat say we want to vote on the 
clean CR, the continuing resolution, that the Senate passed. The 
average American has no clue what we're talking about. Here's what they 
passed. They passed a budget that would allow the spending of $986 
billion. To me, if you're going to talk about a compromise--sequester 
allows a little over a trillion. Republicans want $967 billion. The 
compromise is here, a little over a trillion dollars. That would be a 
compromise on a compromise. But, no, the Senate says not $986 billion. 
That's a compromise on a compromise on a compromise. What did the 
Republican House leaders say? No. $967 billion, our number. By the way, 
no health care.
  For those of you who thought Democrats haven't been compromising, I'm 
here to tell you, in my opinion, not only have we compromised; I think 
we have compromised too much from my philosophical viewpoint. I know 
that I'm the minority view in this House. So be it. I think the 
sequester was too much. I certainly think $967 billion is too much, and 
I think $986 billion is too much. You know why? My constituents want 
senior housing, they want children fed, they want young people 
educated, and on and on and on. They want veterans benefits. They want 
all the things that we do. Of course no one wants to pay for that. I 
get that. I don't either. I pay taxes. I wish everything was free. I'm 
going out to dinner in a little while, hopefully to watch the Red Sox 
win the series, and I don't want to pay for dinner, but I guess I'll 
have to.
  Reasonable differences of opinion, no matter how dramatic they may 
be, a $100 billion difference, are realistic, they're honest, and the 
American people have a right to take sides. They don't have a right to 
say Democrats haven't compromised. This was a compromise. This would 
have been a compromise. This is a compromise. This is not. This is 
uncompromising. That's why I wanted to come up here.
  By the way, there's one little point of historic note. I've been in 
the House 14\1/2\ years. This is my first Special Order. And, as I 
said, I probably missed the first inning of the Red Sox game, which in 
my district is close to a cardinal sin. But this is more important.
  I'm not trying to convince anyone that my side is right or the other 
side is wrong. People have their opinions. I know that. You're probably 
not going to change them. I am here to say that there is a difference 
between compromise and capitulation. We have compromised one, two, 
three times to get where we are. To get to this number would be the 
fourth. To get rid of health care would be fifth; and not just fifth, 
it would be the ending. As far as I'm concerned, this Democrat will not 
compromise further on these issues. It's time for the other side to 
compromise off of what they think the world should be.
  Thank you for yielding, Mr. Garamendi.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Capuano, thank you so very much. I think it's a 
tragedy you've waited 14\1/2\ years to be so eloquent in explaining how 
we got to where we are and the fact that the Democrats have 
consistently cooperated, compromised, and watched those critical 
programs that we care so very much about being consistently hacked away 
at and reduced and, in many cases, all but eliminated.
  Now, we are in the eighth day of the shutdown of the United States 
Government that used to be thought of as the most powerful democracy in 
the world. At the moment, it's a democracy that's not working. As 
pointed out by my colleagues, there was an election last November in 
which these issues were all fundamental in that debate, and the 
American people voted to fully enforce the Affordable Care Act and to 
provide the services, whether they're education, transportation, health 
care, and the rest. Here we are, the minority party in this House and 
actually a minority of that minority party, driving an agenda that is 
anathema to those things that I believe we need to do and completely 
contrary to last November's election.
  I would like now to call upon Mr. Ryan of Ohio, a gentleman who often 
joins us on these evening discussions. We'd like to talk about jobs, 
and we'd like to talk about rebuilding the American manufacturing 
sector. We know that can only be done when the United States Government 
is operating.
  I yield to Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman, and I appreciate my 
colleagues' words here tonight. There's not a whole lot left to cover, 
whether it was the gentleman from Pittsburgh or the gentleman from 
Paterson or the gentleman from East Hartford or the gentleman from 
Somerville in the Boston area, and also the gentleman from upstate New 
York. We've seen them cover many of the issues here. They've been 
broken down. I would just like to maybe touch on a point or two.
  A lot of Members have come to this floor. On all the TV shows they 
talk a lot about, We've got to pay our bills, we've got to pay our 
bills. I think everybody here agrees that we've got to pay our bills. 
It's important for us to remember the bills that were racked up that we 
have to go out and pay, those appropriation bills, off-budget many 
times, were to fund two wars. They went right on Uncle Sam's credit 
card, both of them. They were not paid for, and many of our colleagues 
on the other side never came to this floor and said, Oh my, God, how 
are we going to pay for all of this?
  Economist after economist would come back and say this is going to be 
maybe $100 billion, $200 billion, $300 billion, $400 billion, $500 
billion today. If we factor in all the veterans that are coming back, 
these wars are going to be $2 trillion to $3 trillion to $4 trillion 
when it's all said and done. I don't remember being here watching a 
Member come up on the other side of the aisle, get in the well, and 
make an argument that we need to pay for these wars if we are going to 
go. There was not one.
  Today, they want to talk about being responsible. They want to talk 
about us meeting our obligation. Now they want to say, Oh, yeah, we ran 
up those credit cards. We swiped them, and we kept swiping them. Then 
we doubled down. We need a surge. Let's double down. Let's run that 
credit card one more time. Now today they're saying, We're not going to 
pay the bills. We're going to default unless you repeal the Affordable 
Care Act, and then we'll have a conversation.
  It's the height of irresponsibility.
  Another thing that I find humorous is how over the past few years 
we've been lectured to by many members of the Tea Party about the 
Constitution of the United States and how they're the only Americans, 
this 20 percent, 25 percent, maybe 30 percent, are the only Americans 
who have read the Constitution, and they're the only ones who adhere to 
the Constitution. Yet when we talk about the political process that we 
need to work through, and as Mr. Capuano was just saying, you can have 
a reasonable position. If you don't like it, go to the ballot box and 
win the election. Yet those very same Members are now thumbing their 
noses at the political process that the Founding Fathers set up for us 
to adhere to.

[[Page 15461]]

  We were here during the Iraq war. I was. I wasn't for it. I 
campaigned against it in my first campaign. Guess what? I didn't win. I 
didn't win the argument in 2002 and 2003. I didn't win it in 2004 or 
2005. I came to this floor night after night after night. We finally 
won the House and Senate in 2006. We tried to stop the war. We didn't 
do it, but we took it to the people and we won the House and the Senate 
back. In 2007 and 2008, we took it back to the street, won the 
Presidency. Then, longer than any of us wanted, we finally started 
winding things down. We went through the political process. We didn't 
shut the government down. We didn't say we're going to default on the 
credit card bills that previous Congresses ran up, even though we 
disagreed with how they spent the money.
  What's happening is radical. These are radical acts here in the House 
Chamber. To say we are here to negotiate, if you get rid of the 
Affordable Care Act, is ludicrous. It doesn't make any sense. Have the 
guts to go to the American people and make the argument. For the life 
of me, I can't figure out why you wouldn't let the Affordable Care Act 
get set up. If it's so awful, if it's so bad, set it up, and let it go. 
President Obama has his fingerprints all over it. The Democrats have 
their fingerprints all over it. If it fails, you'll win the Senate in 
2014; and if it's so bad, you'll win the Presidency in 2016. You can 
then defund it, dismantle it, and put 30 million or 40 million people 
out of the health care system, make sure you can get denied health care 
for having a preexisting condition and put the insurance companies 
between the doctor and the patient. Fine, you won the elections. You're 
perfectly capable of doing that.
  Have the guts to go to the street and make the argument. Seventy 
percent of Americans are saying do not shut the government down to try 
to end the Affordable Care Act.
  I will say what I think's happening here. I think the House 
leadership on the Republican side has Stockholm syndrome. I think they 
have started to identify themselves with their captors. The Tea Party 
has now convinced the leadership in the House of Representatives that 
they should have sympathy and empathy towards their captors, so the 
whole country at this point is being shut down because of this.
  Lastly, let me say that the only successful moments in politics that 
our friends on the other side have had is when they divide the American 
people. Who's in a union; who's not in a union. Who's in a public 
sector union versus who's in a private sector union. Who's black; who's 
white. Who's gay; who's straight. Divide, divide, divide, divide; and 
here we are in 2013 a divided Nation that is ungovernable at this point 
because of the power that is held by the Tea Party in the United States 
House of Representatives.
  I just want to say that there is a future waiting to be taken for 
this country, investments back in the United States into our 
infrastructure, into our research, into renewable energies, into 
expanding the grid and making it smarter, and into making sure everyone 
has access to the latest technologies such as three dimensional 
printers in schools, robotics, Legos. Get kids excited about learning.
  We only have 313 million people in the United States. We're competing 
against 1.4 billion people in China, and we're sitting on our hands. 
We're not making the investments we need to be making, and there are 
colleges and universities and schools that need the investment. Every 
day that goes by, Mr. Garamendi, we see one more, two more, five more, 
10 more situations where investments were made collectively by the 
public to benefit our country.
  We need to end this lockout that's happening right now.
  I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

                              {time}  2100

  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Ryan, thank you so much for bringing us just some 
sense of reality of what is actually happening here.
  We're in the eighth day of the lockout. We're in the eighth day of 
the shutdown of the government of the United States of America. And it 
appears, from all that we hear from the Republican side, that this may 
go right up to the debt limit. What a tragedy it would be if we hit 
that and took down the entire economy.
  I think it's time for me to close. I want to thank my colleagues. I 
would ask the American people to pay attention.
  And finally, Mr. Speaker, let us vote. Speaker Boehner, let us vote 
on a clean continuing resolution so that we can, once again, start this 
government. The votes are here. And if you don't believe the votes are 
here, put us up on the board. Let's see if there are 217 votes to 
reopen the American Government. We can only find out, Mr. Speaker, if 
you let us vote.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________